Camping Trip 2013-3, Bloopers and Outtakes

I spend far too much time taking pictures of random or weird things.  Or maybe it's that is mostly what material my family gives me to work with.  Yes, I'm going with that.  My boys (including The Coach) are just crazy.

I also like to take pictures of food.  I can't help it.  And when you camp as much as we do, you can't rely on hamburgers and hotdogs every night or you get bored really quickly.  We grilled three of the five nights we camped.  On a few nights, we came back to the campsite and changed into dry clothes, and took a break to eat.  It was another huge money saver.

Grilled steak quesadillas.  Oh yum.

I also tried something different with the traditional s'mores.  We made them in ice cream cones, using mini marshmallows and chocolate chips (or mini rolo's and mini reese's, those were a big hit too).  Wow were they good.  They were much tastier than traditional graham cracker s'mores.  And sweeter too.  And easier to eat.  They didn't crumble apart and break like graham crackers.   

I don't know why this is so funny to me.  Jack was "trying on" (his words, not mine) everybody else's bikes.  He jumped from his, and went up in height until he reached his Dad's.

And down he went.  I laughed pretty hard.  He wasn't hurt.  Well, maybe his feelings a little because I laughed at him.  "Too tall, too tall" he said.  Haha.

Everybody knows a foxtail makes an awesome hairbrush.  Just ask Jack.

I always thought they figured out the length of the wait time by some checkpoints on the line.  You know, if the line is at this spot, it's 20 minutes, and this spot, 30 and so on.  No, I guess not.  When we reached the Jungle Cruise line, the cast member handed me a lanyard to wear around my neck and told me to give it to the driver of our Jungle Cruise boat.    

There are a few rides that have a 44 inch height requirement.  Jack is 43 3/4 inches.  With his hair, he's an easy 44.  Hair is not supposed to count though, and depending on who was checking the height, he wasn't able to ride a few times.  He slipped through the Space Mountain line twice, and was turned away another few times.  He was however, given a couple of really cool passes when they turned him away.

I mean really... Wouldn't you give this sad little face some sort of parting gift if he cried like this when you told him he wasn't tall enough?  They gave him a "future rider" fast pass for when he comes back and he's tall enough.

He got this one from the space ride at EPCOT.  He really didn't care about missing that ride though.  You know why?  

Because he bought himself this nifty water fan, and once he had it, that's all he wanted to do.  He sprayed every square inch of every park we went to.  

My sweet baby boy was tucked snugly into his stroller underneath the rain cover.  But when it was really hot outside, that thing turned into a straight up sauna.  If you weren't paying attention you could hard boil your baby in less than 30 minutes.  It could be scary.  

We got stuck in a huge rainstorm waiting for a bus one afternoon and there was no escaping it.  The stroller was folded and all I could do was cover him under my rain poncho.  His little foot got waterlogged, and when we got back to the campsite he was soaked and cold.  But not mad.  He's such a good little guy.

Wow, that's a waterlogged baby foot.

Snuggly little guy, getting all warmed up.  

I had a discussion with The Coach about how he never smiles for pictures.  He really just doesn't unless I hit him with a sneak-attack.  So every picture I take with him in it is usually really two.  The first is the grouchy face, the second is the fake leave me alone smile after I've hollered at him for not smiling the first time.  I can't win either way. 

Hahahaha.

This is absolutely not a genuine smile on The Coach.  This is the second photo fake cheese face.  I hate the teacups, by the way.  Especially when you ride with the most competitive people on the planet.  Oh my goodness, I was so dizzy when we got off of this ride the first time that Justice had to help me off of the dang thing.  I can't believe they went on this thing over and over again.  I was nauseous after riding only once.  Yuk.

Jack and Justice were of course the driving force behind opening and closing park every day.  And Jack did GREAT until he lost his steam riding the boat back to the campground.

Asleep on the floor of the boat.  Yes, I know his eyes are open.  When he is flat out exhausted, he sleeps with his eyes open.  Yes, it's creepy.

And lucky for The Coach that he's in such great shape and also a Dad of the Year candidate, because he carried both little guys back to the bus stop after we got off the boat.

And just to shore up (a Navy term for strengthen) my earlier statement about Jack sleeping with his eyes open, here's a shot of him on the way home from our vacation.  He is KNOCKED OUT.

Disney has a program called the Rider Switch.  If you don't know about this and have little bitty kids, you are missing out big time.  When you get to the beginning of the line, you ask for a Rider Switch pass and the cast member will give you a card that entitles up to three people a Fastpass that is good anytime.  So in essence, Joe and the boys can ride a ride while I sit with the baby, and then once they get off, I can go on the ride with the boys and use the Fastpass line.  It's AWESOME.   The second parent doesn't have to wait in line again, and up to two more kids get to go on the ride again too.  It's a winner.  They do not advertise it though, so you have to ask for it when you either get in line or when you get your Fastpasses for a ride.  You can also save it for later if you don't want to ride again immediately.  As long as you use it the same day it's issued, you are all set.

That prefaces this picture.  I was waiting for Dad and the boys to get off of a ride and I really needed to use the restroom.  The baby carrier hooks quite nicely on the hook of the bathroom door.  

Jacoby got to go on plenty of rides too.  They allow babies on any ride without a height requirement, which is actually a lot of rides at Magic Kingdom.  Joe or I just wore him in the sling and he got to go on all the cool rides that are my favorite.

I mentioned the boys got light saber's at Hollywood Studios in my first post.   At the gift shop for Star Tours, they have a really cool station where you can build your own.  They loved it.  And I thought it was cool too.  Until they had a saber fight inside the camper.  I kicked them outside.

 Jack also got a pirate sword that he routinely whacked Justice with.

Jack is also the master of the fake-cheese. 

Justice was a psychopath for most of the trip.  By the end of the Electric Light Parade at night, he was a downright certifiable nut job.  Especially in his "glow hawk"

Me, mortified:  "JACK!!!  What are you DOING?"  

Jack, nonchalantly:  "Nothing.  Just shooting my penis with my Buzz Lightyear Gun."

Me:  "Please stop."

Jack:  "OK"

I've had several people mention to me that Jack's hair is always redder in pictures than it is in person.  It's true.  

Let's talk about souvenirs for a second.  We told both boys months ago that they were responsible for buying all of their own souvenirs.  And we stuck to our guns, and we did not buy them anything.  They both bought all of their own trinkets.  And wouldn't you know, when you impose that rule on your kids, they don't bug you to buy them every little thing they see.  Justice had a good amount of money saved up, and only bought himself a light saber, his "glow hawk" and these mouse ears.  He was very careful about what he spent his money on, and he came home with almost half of it left over.  I was really proud of him.  Jack spent ALL his money.  A light saber, that stupid mist-fan, an LED necklace, mouse ears, a buzz lightyear gun and a sword.  But he was happy with his purchases and that's all that matters.  I did buy Jack a Yoda T-Shirt that says "Judge me by my size, do you?"  It's super cute, fits his personality perfectly.  He is very short for his age, but we all know his personality makes up for it.

And I will close this whole mess out with a picture of Jack, smiling for real.  Not fake, not forced, but smiling for real because he is having fun.